I am asking you to help this relaunch become a reality, the plan is easy and straightforward. Your support will go towards CD/book/objects duplication, printing and audio mastering. The relaunch will be a substantial upfront investment that will be impossible without your help… And if some of you just can't contribute, no worries! Just get the word out and make some noise about this campaign! That would be very helpful and I would really appreciate it.

Any funding received above our campaign goal will pay for further new releases of new artists.

Now throughout 2019, 901 Editions will finalise and issue 4 new releases by:

AKIO SUZUKI

CD + 6 panel digisleeve + 8pp booklet

"Resonant Spaces" audio excerpt:

The work presented here for the very first time is the full documentation of Japanese sound artist and instruments builder Akio Suzuki’s solo works performed as part of ‘Resonant Spaces’, a tour with UK saxophonist John Butcher arranged in 2006 by the Arika organisation with the support of the Scottish Arts Council. Resonant Spaces allowed people to experience sound in some of the remotest regions of Scotland for a series of site-specific performances in natural, prehistoric, manmade and industrial locations including the largest coastal cave in the UK (Smoo Cave), the Wormit reservoir, the largest industrial ice house (Tugnet Ice House), the WWII massive 4 storey, 30m wide cylindrical oil tank located in Lyness, the 2,500 year old - and Scotland’s largest stone circle - Ring of Brodgar, and the Hamilton Mausoleum which has an impressive reverberation decay of 15 seconds! A very special recording to dive into master Suzuki’s interest in the relation between acoustic sounds and natural world, here emphasised by these unique locations’ acoustic properties. The fascination for the power of echo, the process of listening in relation to the audience, are here magnified to create a very particular bond of rare beauty between the musical creation and nature’s environment intended as a collaborator by the artist. The 8pp booklet includes some photos taken by Keiko Yoshida and the tour diary written by Akio Suzuki, released by Bixobal magazine and translated by Alan Cummings. Project coordination by Keiko Yoshida. Recorded by Ruari Cormack. Giuseppe Ielasi will take care of the mastering.

“I think of Akio Suzuki as a kind of magician”
—David Toop

“Hearing this music, I remember many things, including playing in a puddle as a tiny kid”
—Yamatsuka Eye, Boredoms

NICOLAS BERNIER

IMPORTANT! Backers will have the opportunity to choose their preferred tuning fork in a survey HERE

This is the last release in the series of Nicolas Bernier’s worldwide acclaimed and Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica awarded project “frequencies”. This release comes not only as a limited edition of 200 copies wallet CD, but the artist is giving away what rests from his own personal tuning forks collection. People purchasing the CD will thus receive one of the tuning forks which were used for the whole studio and live project around the world (the tuning fork is not available for the 'FEBRUARY releases' reward). Each tuning fork is unique and comes alongside a laser cut acrylic base with the frequency engraved.

The pieces on his second release on 901 Editions stem from an artist residency in the Scientific instrument collection at Université Rennes 1, France. Founded by physicist Dominique Bernard, the collection is home to more than 3000 scientific instruments from the past. Surrounded by these instruments, Bernier worked with 19th century tuning forks, especially with one of the rare remaining copies of the Grand Diapason built in 1889 by physicist Karl Rudolf Koenig. This huge 1.50 meter tall tuning fork can generate sub-sonic vibrations between 16 and 24 Hertz, making some portions of the pieces barely audible. The project was initially commissioned by Electroni[k] as a radiophonic version. Later on, Bernier made a longer 20 minute version without the voice for the Immerson concert series created by France Jobin. The two versions are reunited together for the first time on a proper release. Mastered by Alexander Vatagin.

We are now presenting a book including texts by Ed Patuto and Suzy Halajian + a CD, both documenting the audiovisual work Stillness, which was exhibited at Soundfjord (London, 2010), The Broad (Los Angeles, 2015) in a large scale diptych spread over 5 projectors with an 4ch sound element per side, and as part of The Future Eve, Fellowship of Contemporary Artists (Los Angeles, 2017).

Stillness takes its inspiration from the two climates Yann Novak have inhabited: Subtropical in Los Angeles and Oceanic in Seattle. In these works he investigates these climates’ almost static meteorological states and their emotional effect on their inhabitants.

The sound elements were created using recordings of shortwave radio signal tuned to static in each location. Because radio waves are effected by both water vapor in the troposphere and ionizationin the upper atmosphere from the sun, each recording, though similar, contains a unique signature from the atmosphere the waves traveled through. Similarly the video elements are made up of numerous photographs taken over a span of months in the case of Stillness.Subtropical and years in Stillness.Oceanic, always pointed at the horizon. These photographs capture a more literal portrait of these climates. All these elements are then digitally altered to create an ambiguous abstraction, leaving enough of the source to guide the experience and define the location, but abstract enough to create an immersive environment perfect for contemplation and personal reflection.

KEN IKEDA + RIE NAKAJIMA + MAKOTO OSHIRO

"Floating Weeds" audio excerpt:

Japanese-born and London-based sound artist Ken Ikeda has previously appeared on the label’s project “Quark: How Does Invisible Sound?” (Q06). He now teams up with Rie Nakajima and Makoto Oshiro for a series of collaborations included in this CD alongside his solo opening track. The album title is borrowed from the 1959’s movie by Yasujirō Ozu called Ukikusa (Japanese word for Floating Weeds). The album contains three different recordings, a solo concert by Ken Ikeda called “Early Spring” recorded in Fukuoka at Konya 2023 as part of Duenn’s Experimental Forum event; the second track “Middle Spring” which sees Ken Ikeda and London-based Rie Nakajima collaborating for the Resonance FM broadcast, curated by Gwait Swan at Aces & Eights in London; and the last one “Late Spring”, in which Ikeda and Tokyo-based Makoto Oshiro recorded a liveset at Iklectik in London for the Ya No Bi with KILT, event presented by suzueri. All tracks were recorded in 2017. Motors, sound objects, automated gestures, mixed materials as opposed to synthesizer-generated sounds meet up, overlap and create dialogues. An exceptional way to have three of the most interesting contemporary sound artists united in a record and a picture of today’s Japanese sonic research all at once.

Risks and challenges

I set a long schedule in order to prevent delays of any kind, for example some associated with pressing plants. Before launching the Kickstarter campaign, I made sure to have the designs ready to go (I will just put the finishing touches, for example thanking the higher tier pledge donors in the liner notes of each release). The first two releases scheduled for January (Nicolas Bernier and Ikeda/Nakajima/Oshiro) and Yann Novak’s work are completed and already have the master. That means if the campaign reaches the goal, I will immediately send the work to production and do the best to deliver the pledge you generously paid for in time. Akio Suzuki’s Resonant Spaces has not been mastered yet. This is because part of the funds have been addressed to the mastering engineer, who has almost 5 months to finalise it, which is plenty enough time. While the estimated completion and delivery date has been set, it's quite possible everything could be ready and shipped before then. Thank you so much for exploring and supporting the relaunch!

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if you are a musician you can have one of your tracks remixed by Fabio Perletta. if you are not a musician you can have two of the 4 releases of your choice. [Nicolas Bernier’s ‘frequencies (a_archive)’ is available as a CD only]

you will also receive a flyer of Fabio Perletta's performance with Yann Novak and Steve Roden at Human Resources in Los Angeles in June 2017.